Harry Potter's David Yates Could Take On Tarzan

UPDATE:Gary Ross's representatives have contacted us to let us know he is not, in fact, pursuing the Tarzan project.

Turns out it pays sometimes to read all the way to the end of even the most minor-seeming Hollywood news articles. As spotted by The Playlist, the tail end of a Deadline article about screenwriter Adam Cozad notes that the Tarzan film he wrote for Warner Bros. is starting to draw interest from some big-name Hollywood directors. David Yates, Gary Ross and Susanna White are all reportedly "interested" in the project, which the studio is developing right alongside another Tarzan movie written by Craig Brewer, director of Hustle & Flow and Footloose.

Let's set aside the insanity of developing two nearly identical projects at once and look at the three directors who might take on the non-Brewer Tarzan. Yates is the one with the strongest ties to Warner Bros., having directed the final four Harry Potter movies to the tune of, like, eleventy billion dollars for the studio. Yates, who seemed completely exhausted at the release of Deathly Hallows Part 2, was briefly attached to big projects like an adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand and a Doctor Who movie, but he bailed on those as well as Your Voice in My Head; now all that's left on his docket is Cicero, which could star Tom Hardy as the notorious gangster Al Capone. Maybe Yates could get Tarzan going once that project wraps?

Then again, the job might go to Gary Ross, who had the biggest hit of his career with The Hunger Games but declined to direct the sequel, Catching Fire, with plans to take on something he could develop himself. Tarzan doesn't really seem to fit that description, but who knows what the guy might be looking for. And White would be making a really big change-- her most recent feature was Nanny McPhee Returns, and she's also done work on TV shows like Generation Kill, Boardwalk Empire and the acclaimed miniseries Bleak House. It's totally unclear just how much any of these directors are actually interested, or where the project stands, but feel free to speculate on who ought to help Tarzan do his vine-swinging in the comments below. Personally, I'm still rooting for Brewer's project to win out.